Our history
The University of Warwick founded the Warwick in Africa programme in 2006 as a charitable initiative intended to channel both the talent of Warwick students and its own expertise into one primary aim – to promote and support education in sub-Saharan Africa.
The first year of the project saw just a few students travel to government schools in Africa to provide assistance in English and Maths classes. Now, the programme has extended its reach to 25 partner schools, sending around 50 student volunteers to Africa each year.
Why Africa?
According to the UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS), the official source of internationally comparable data on education and literacy used to monitor progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals, more than half of the world’s children that have not enrolled in school live in sub-Saharan Africa, and more than 85 per cent of children in sub-Saharan Africa are not reaching minimum proficiency levels in reading and mathematics.
The United Nations has set itself 17 Sustainable Development Goals to be achieved by 2030, the fourth goal relates to a quality education. Education enables upward socioeconomic mobility and is a key to escaping poverty. The Warwick in Africa programme seeks to support SDG Goal 4 by working with its partner schools to raise the standards of education for learners, particularly so that they can achieve good levels of literacy and numeracy.
Why Warwick?
The University of Warwick is uniquely placed to deliver this kind of programme, it has ready access to a pool of willing volunteers consisting of exceptional students volunteers and expert staff mentors. Knowledge sharing, an activity that an education institutional is ideally placed to take part in, is a cornerstone of sustainable development.
Furthermore, it is a strategic priority for the University to provide an education which is international in outlook. Students who participate in the programme get to immerse themselves in a new culture and develop vital intercultural communication and other skills.